Raider International Publishing – Reviewed (Updated 2017)

Raider International publishing is an author solutions service offering a wide range of services to authors looking to publish a book. Raider has been around for seven years and the company was founded by Adam Salviani, a writer himself who set up the company following the ravages of publishing through PublishAmerica and Authorhouse. In hindsight, Salviani could and should have learned a lot in those years.

“Here at Raider Publishing we do all we can to provide you and your novel the support that you and your book deserves. Many publishers will provide you with fewer services during the production process and will virtually forget about you and your work once it has been released. Raider Publishing will provide you with constant reports on your book’s progress during the production process, and once we release your work, we guarantee to do all we can to promote your book to the world. Our goal is to provide you with nothing less then our full attention and respect.”

I have had my eye on Raider for the past seven years and I the company first caught my attention around 2007, but recently (2010-2012), this company has concerned me. Like a lot of POD publishers who stay the course after their foundation year, Raider Publishing steadily did improve their service each year (2005-2008) and Raider showed sustained growth up to 2009. It has been a learning curve for them, and in the early times, it did show—that is why I held off reviewing them fully until 2008.

Raider offer six packages, steel, bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond. The basic service for $499 gives most of the basics of self publishing packages, a cover designed by the publisher, full book layouts from the author’s manuscript, a paperback edition, and ISBN. The details are not described very well and one suggests we are simply dealing with templates for the author’s book. Royalities are 51% of net price, less the print and wholesale discounts to online retailers and five copies for the author. In a nutshell, if the book is $15, then the author will get around the $3 mark. The bronze package ($899) offers an increased author discount on book purchases and 5 free copies – nothing in free with an author solutions service. The silver package ($1899) offers a press release, editing on the author’s manuscript, greater cover options, 10 author copies, book broadcast on iTunes, and a hardback as well as paperback option. The gold package ($2799) comes with a TV/radio advert campaign, book signing arrangements, an interview in their literary magazine, shelf space consideration and 61% royalties. The platinum and diamond packages ($3499-4499) introduce guaranteed shelf space with partners (RPI own a bookshop in New York), an author website and ebook, and other promotional opportunities.

You can that at least Raider acknowledge the importance and need for book shelf space, but ‘request for physical shelf space’ and ‘guaranteed’ only appears on the high-priced packages. Many POD publishers won’t admit this lack of effort on any or their lower packages. I can at least testify that I have seen Raider titles at my local Eason & Sons, Borders and Books Unlimited stores in Dublin (circa 2009), so I do know there is evidence that titles have gained shelf space with limited success.

There are further add-on bells and whistles you can pay for as outlined above. From Radio/TV adverts, the – 120 day expedited service which has always puzzled me (This irked me most when the company has struggled to meet even standard publishing deadlines). Most self-published authors should actually take a minimum of 120 days to consider what they have let themselves in for if they sign up to a POD publishing service. The time will at least give them the opportunity to plan and consider what efforts they are prepared to make themselves to promote their own book. They can make use of the time to send out press previews, AI’s and build up a prominent website of their own and concentrate on all their social network links, as well as threading the pathways to meet and greet their local independent booksellers.

You can find the latest services for Raider here, because frankly they seem to change on a regular basis.

While some authors are happy to pay for any add-on service—Raider were one of the few POD publishers worth considering for the value of what they offered, but during 2008-2010, from author feedback, it proved this company were not living up to that standard). Raider invested in their own media platforms, from The Raider Broadcasting Network (seems on a wind-down since early 2011- baring marketing paid by their authors) to their The Raider Literary Magazine (This is also now gone to boot!) and I’m not longer convinced there exists the same commitment and investment. The lists of authors on Raider is also reflective of the growing presence worldwide and their efforts to set up overseas offices outside of the US (South Africa, London and Australia). But, I suspect that many of these overseas offices are simply posting addresses as many overseas authors have reported to me that books were sent from the USA and not from print plants worldwide.

I have bought about twenty Raider titles over the past year, and if I have one criticism, it is the layout of their books, and this still remains a consistent niggle I have up until late 2011. Their internal layout is all the same, even the font choice and placement of it on their covers looks poor at times! There is a definition between publishing house style and pure and downright sloppy layout. This is one area Raider International Publishing is letting their authors down on. I worry when I see a descent well-edited book, self published through a POD publisher, and it lets itself down on layout. Many of the books I have seen from Raider insist on that amateurish extended paragraph indent on every page, and continuation of it onto the next new chapter. It does – at this stage – seem to be a style of habit, or more likely, an adherence to the templates used. Guys, sack your layout editor or change it pretty fast—you are letting yourselves down in this area and you wouldn’t believe how many people make an assumption about you as a publisher.

Up until 2009, I would have counted Raider in the top pile of author solutions services, but there persists rough corners that are not being rounded, and since 2009, communication and publication deadlines are becoming more of a concern for me (see the comments section below this review). Raider need to improve book layout and options available on finished books, and make the final PDF files which authors are actually paying for available to the authors on contract termination. This still has not happened. [as of 2012 – nothing seems to be changing] Just how much Raider have slipped back as a progressive company is reflected in the fact that an author is expected to $2799 before an ebook release is included.

Raider once was a daring outfit with lots of ideas and innovation, also prepared to be independent and brave as a self-publishing provider of services to new authors. Seven years is a long time for an author solutions service, and I just do not see the improvements I should see in a service over that period of time. If anything, Raider have gone backward – far, far backward – and the recent launch of Purehaven Press offering pretty much they same looks a cynical move to clear the slates and start again without addressing what has gone before. I think the comments section below – built up over several years – speaks for itself.

Please see above for the latest pricing increase from Raider, which have risen approximate $100/€100/£50 over the past twelve months. At the start of the year Raider International Publishing opened their first brick and mortar bookstore in Suffern, New York. There have also been reports of delays from authors on agreed publishing dates. Raider continue to offer an expedited publishing service for $299. Expect a six month publishing process.

34 Comments

Hello,Thanks for all the information you’ve put up on the blog. It has really helped me make up my mind about Raider. I am a first time author whose manuscript has been accepted by Raider but due to its invisibility in India, I wasn’t too sure about the authenticity of the firm. Your blog has finally cleared my doubts and, thanks again, I am going ahead. Thank you,Piyush Ranjan.P.S. You can reach me at itbhupiyush@gmail.com

I have bought about twenty Raider titles over the past year, and if I have one single criticism, it is the layout of their books. Their internal layout is all the same! There is a definition between publishing house style and pure and downright standard, sloppy, layout. This is one area Raider International Publishing is letting their authors down in. I worry when I see a descent well-edited book, self published through a POD publisher, and it lets itself down on layout. Many of the books I have seen from Raider insist on that amateurish extended paragraph indent on every page, and continuation of it onto the next new chapter. It does, at this stage, seem to be a style of habit.

Piyush,

I would strongly consider this evaluation on Raider’s book layout, and up till recently, I believe it was still a consistency with their published books. It is crucial when using a self-publishing service that the most professional appearance be given to the physical look of a book.

Otherwise, Raider are a good all round service. Good luck on your publishing endeavours.

I’ve had my book Eleonore published by Raider in 2007 and I had a strange experience with them when they started to promote my book. For all the books they sent to the addresses I gave them, not one of these arrived at those addresses.And the promotion turned out to be a complete failure while I paid them first 250 euro and later another 500 Euro for one of the other packages. I lost all my money. And that’s my experience with Raider Intrnational Publishing

Since January 2010, and in particular, the past 6 weeks, I have received a number of correspondence from authors expressing concern about delays and lack of communication with Raider International Publishing. The publisher service continues to expand with the launch of a brick and mortar store in New York in January, but I have an outstanding concern that growth is now starting to impact on committed deadlines.

Any experiences with RPI in the past two months are welcome, provided you have already expressed any concerns with the company directly.

I have had enough of Raider. Before I paid them my money, they communicated with me very promptly, with answers that gave me hope and encouragement. After I paid, it then took them weeks to respond to any query, no matter how small. Their responses were vague. They admitted to not knowing what to do with the information they had requested I send to them. They also admitted after four months of having my manuscript that no work had begun. (In original correspondence, they suggested three months to completion).

I have now sent them my request to be refunded my money and have my contract with them terminated due to this lack of service.

They have not responded to me at all. I had initially decided that their flaws were due to them being a young company, and I was happy to give them the support they needed. I now see them as a scam. I encourage all who have been stung by Raider to pursue legal action to recoup losses. I will be.

Hi All.I could make this a very long story but I will try and keep in as short as possible. I went with Raider Publishing in April 2009. I paid my money and after many frightening months in waiting I finally received a few emails stating that they were working on my book. For a while their emails were pretty prompt but they rarely ever answered my questions properly. Sometimes they gave me answers which had nothing to do with my questions. They had promised to get my book published before Christmas. Sometime in October 2009 I received two cover layout’s which looked like they had been developed by children using Paintbrush. They looked sloppy and rushed and I got the feeling that they just pumped me out something to keep me happy. In november I sent them in final synopsis, aknowledgements and photo layout for the cover. December arrived and still nothing. Then just before Christmas I received a short email from Salviani cogratulating me on my book and that it was now on sale at Amazon and Barnes&Noble. They had put it out on sale before I had seen the completed product. I found it on the internet stores mentioned, but to my surprise they had mispelled the title and the synopsis was the old version. Within a week my book could be found on several internet stores all over the world, all with the incorrect title and synopsis. I finally received my copies to find that the synopsis was incorrect and only my sir name was on the spine. They promised to correct this immediatley. I got a friend of mine to order my book and guess what. When he received it nothing had been corrected plus my website name was also not printed on the back cover liked they promised. It took them four months to get the title corrected on Amazon and Barnes&Noble but not the synopsis. On all the other internet stores the title and snopsis are still incorrct or have no cover photo. I have been pushing them relentless for information on the promotion details that they had offered in their packages but for the last four weeks I have heard nothing. It took them three months after release before they put it in their Raider Bookshop with the excuse that they were revamping the books store site. Revamping. They stuck a photo onto the top of the site, nothing else has changed. Then I had email that they were going through a reorganization where I now had a new contact instead of dealing with Salviani himself. No improvement. Thus my book has been on sale since December 9th 2009 and I still have not received any details on sales, promotion, press releases, broadcasting, shelf space. All of these were included in their package. They have a lot of info., out on their site but most of it sucks. Take for instances ” New Releases” these three books have been out there since May/June 2009. Hasn’t been changed since. Thus I have very mixed feelings about these guys and the longer time goes by my trust in them is becoming low. My second novel is almost complete but right now I am looking around for new options. That’s my story on Raider.

Thanks for coming forward Patrick, and everybody else who has already published comments based on their dealings with Raider. I have emailed Adam Salviani personally to complain about the lack of service and complete ignorance of the package I paid for. What a surprise…no response. I still have not heard anything from anyone there in weeks, despite sending them demands to respond.

My experience with Raider is very similar to Patrick’s. I bought the silver package paid and waited for the edited version of my book “Moses was a Liar”. After some time I received cover designs which were totally unacceptable, forcing me to hire a local graphic artist who did a magnificent job.Then I received the final edit and lo and behold…the layout was poor, all my footnotes had been removed and the language was changed! I immediately communicated with the editor and redid the whole book myself (220 000 words) after that everything went quiet until in December 2009 when I received my 25 copies of the book to my great delight. It was well bound and the cover looked magnificent…when I opened the book I realised to my horror that they had printed the incorrect version (pre my final edit!!) and circulated this worldwide…on complaining to Adam he indicated he was very sorry and had fired the editor and would withdraw the book pending a total revision using my final edit and be completed by January 2010…it is October 2010 now and I have yet to see the revised publication despite many e-mails and queries.I have received one sales report for the period Oct-Dec 2009; no payment of royalties and further e-mails re further reports have gone unanswered.The only positive I have is that my book was featured in the latest quarterly magazine as one of 6 to watch out for.At one stage I threatened Raider with legal action and Adam responded by saying he has kept to the contract. Hello, anybody home? As I live in South Africa, pursuing legal action would be difficult and most expensive.I sincerely believe that Adam is in over his head and while he seems to be a nice person, has disappointed authors in many instances.

Thank you Marilyn. The last dealing I had with Raider was someone from the South African branch sending me a proofed version of my manuscript. The most disconcerting thing about the proofread was in reference to my underlined text (the proper m/s format for noting where italics are going to be used) She said the following:“Words in full caps and underlined text are only allowed in novel titles. We use italics for emphasis in novels, not either of these other methods (the other methods are used in editorial or web copy, or self-help type books and textbooks). I’ve amended this throughout your manuscript.”Firstly there was no full caps in my manuscript and secondly, I wanted to ask her how she qualifies to be an editor if she does not know the simplest of manuscript rules that I was able to learn from published writers blogs!Anyway, this all came after the last contact I had with Raider where I asked them not to do any editing on my novel at all as I wanted to re-edit it myself first. Adam had agreed to this and yet still went ahead anyway.

This is to mirror all comments above. I purchased the gold package plus paid an additional £700 for the fast track publishing. This was promised before christmas in time for christmas market sales. On 9th Dec had final edit manuscript through for approval. As stated from other comments it was appalling . I HAD TO RE EDIT ALL AGAIN MYSELF I SENT TO THEM AND NOTHING HAS NOW BEEN DONE. I HAVE WRITTEN TO them asking for clarification of date of release and all the other things that went with gold package deal plus my 700 paid back as they failed to meet deadline to no avail and no reply.I had also stated I wa svisiting New York over the new year and would like to meet with them. They state dit would nopt be convenient to meet. I have now threatened them with legal action and still no response what makes this firm think they can get away with this. There must be something we could all do to get together in one big case and completely take this firm to task to get money back and/or a satisfactory result.

I’ve been following Raider now, and for quite some time – since late 2006. It is genuinely sad to see such a promising and developing publishing service because what Raider has now become.

Neither did I take any joy from making them the first publishing service that this site does not recommend. Even some of the poorest companies we reviewed here – including PublishAmerica – never reach the point of this site openly not recommending.

@ AnonymousAt the time of review, and even in subsequent updates, the ‘expedited’ publishing service with Raider was around the $250 mark. I’m staggered you paid £700 – just for that – that’s well over $1000 alone.

At the time of writing – Raider has been very quite after Christmas in regards to Raider Broadcasting – if memory serves me correctly – this time last year, Adam Salviani was apologizing about some of the acknowledged shortcomings of the company in a podcast on there.

A year ago, I suggested Raider should withdraw the expedited service – simply because they were clearly not delivering on it – certainly not well-edited and formatted books for their authors. That never happened, and when things start to go pear-shaped in a developing business – it’s generally good sense to address the cracks, consolidate and improve the business you already have, rather than continue to push an already creaking structure. That’s pretty basic stuff and doesn’t require aggrieved customers or a Donald Trump at the helm to do just that.

Hi! Everyone. My name is Vedant Kotiyal,17,India. I have been working on two of my books and I sent a few of it’s chapters to Raider and a week later I got their message of accepting. Should I go for it? I mailed few of my questions to them but they are not answered yet? Is it a self publishing company?Should I look for someone else?

Wings of Phoenix – don’t waste your maoney, for that is exactly what giving money to this lot will be, unless all you are looking for is a handful of copies of a book to show to friends. Nobody will see your book, nobody will buy your book. Go to a proper commercial publishing house in India.

After 138 publisher rejections, there weren’t any more in my genre, so I decided to go with Raider, $1800.00 worth. What an extraordinary disaster.

My book “I Heard the Silent Ring” is about my spiritual path. In the late sixties I experienced an out of body experience with an Indian teacher while owning & operating a saloon in New York. I had no spiritual experience as all I knew was booze & broads. But after this silent event, I was lit up, gave away all my possessions including beach front property in the Bahamas and a sweet two door Jaguar roadster that won the 53′ Le Mons Grande Prix., and went on a forty year spiritual journey. Eventually studying and befriending eight spiritual teachers/masters. When Raider published my book last July the statement: “All characters portrayed in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.” was placed on the first page. HUH? – Doesn’t say much for me or the Dali Lama.

They also left off the Glossary and with over 150 Hindu, Buddhist and American Indian words this was major. They also screwed up 38 photos.I refused to promote the book until they pull the first run and replace it with the proper one. They claim the proper book will be out soon. We’ll see.

It is high time that the authors see through Mr. Adam Salviani’s deceit and deception. I had the misfortune of getting my first book, The Tragedy of Kashmir, published by his company. They printed my book, full of mistakes, without my knowledge after a delay of a year and half, never sent me the author’s copies and lied to me about the number of copies sold. Mr. Salviani is adept at making excuses and put the blame on inefficient office staff,proofreader and editor whom he wants to be fired Anyone who trusts this self-styled sympathizer of new authors with his work and money, the way I did, will come to a lot of grief.

I’d at least like to think what we are doing here on TIPM is informing authors about what is available out there – good and bad. I’d also like to think that authors looking now at Raider will have made their minds up.

I’m only 20 years old. For a long time, maybe even now, I’ve wanted to spend my life doing what I knew best: writing and sharing works of fiction.

I’m getting more and more discouraged as the months pass. Just like the authors above mentioned, I paid, and the emails stopped. I was assigned an assistant who doesn’t respond. I’ve been waiting for so many months that now, I haven’t been informed about anything! I don’t know if they’ve started publishing my book, and after all these comments I only expect the worst.

This is a critical time for me when I’m deciding what to do with my life and RPI has done nothing but dent the only dream my heart sort to pursue. I may as well just throw in the towel and quit stressing or else I’ll kill over.

There is nothing worse in the world for a author to take the first steps into self-publishing and immediately experience a bad experience with a solutions provider.

Sadly you will have encountered the other comments from authors here about RPI (incidentally, maybe it should actually be RIP – Raider International Publishing – there’s more hidden in a name than meets the eye!) far too late for you. I would however try and not let this experience color your view on all author solutions services and that’s part of the reason TIPM exists, because not only can authors read objective reviews on paid publishing services, but they can only read the experiences of other authors.

If I have one regret on the original review I did of Raider’s services, it’s that I placed too much faith in them to continue to develop as an efficient and conscientious provider of services.

As I’ve stated here, and elsewhere, Raider ultimately made the mistake of trying to develop too many irons in the fire and compromised quality in service for quantity of titles in the market. It was – initially – an understandable result of early business success (developing quicker than internal resources could cope with), but on the long tail – unforgivable after so many private and public assurances to authors that issues of communication and book-to-market delays would be quickly addressed.

I left a comment on 4 Dec 2010 at 14.53. Today’s date is 23 January 2013 and I have until now had nothing but problems with Adam Salviani. He published my book (Die in Paris) in August 2010 without letting me know: I learnt of its publication when I googled my name that September. The book was poorly produced and full of printing errors. I have since received just one payment which did not even come to $100 from Salviani and this was only after I had to threaten him with the law. Since then I am not even receiving sales reports from him and he no longer replies to my emails. When I phone his number I reach a voicemail that tells me that he is not available and to call back. I am again now threatening him with the law. Mick, you give him 5/10: please give him 0/10. He should not be allowed to put himself over as a publisher anymore. I beg a writer who reads this comment please not to give him your money. Plainly speaking: he is a crook.

Hi me again. With all the comments and not having received a sales report now for over a year (and I know that sales have been happening)and reviewing all the disgruntled authors on this blog a question: are we not able as a group, to institute a class case against Adam and Raider? Litigation is costly but if we all stand together we may be able to jolt him out of his lethargy!

Sorry I did not read all these before I opted to go with Raider. Got my books EVENTUALLY. Many, many unanswered emails. Much frustration. Books promised in August 2011 still not received. Email queries this year ignored. Raider Publishing is a scam. No royalties either. Surely time Adam Salvani should be prosecuted.

His latest business is Green Shore Publishing, which uses author testimonials that actually are videos by people from Fiverr.com (they will video a testimonial about anything for $5, using your script). The first clue that they weren’t real is that none of the three give a surname or the name of their book. The site has been referred to the Advertising Standards Bureau, which has indicated it will investigate. Also the “London headquarters” is a mail drop and none of the books represented on the site has having been published by Green Shore and supposedly available from Amazon, Waterstones, etc. actually exist. There’s also a Facebook page, which mysteriously gained 3000 “likes” overnight–there are also people on Fiverr who will arrange bogus likes for you.

TIPM heard it and we will be making an audio file available in the coming day or two, Jonathan. Believe me, the BBC You & Yours feature is just the tip of the iceberg. See our latest post yesterday evening. Lots more to come on Adam Salviani and his publishing imprints.